1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hand-held puzzles. More specifically, the present invention relates to a pyramid-shaped puzzle having one or more maze-panels intermediate its vertex and base, with each maze-panel having a plurality of holes in it. The puzzle is solved by manipulating the puzzle so that a ball rolls through the maze of each maze-panel and through a specified hole in each maze-panel until the ball reaches its designated home-base.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hand-held puzzles that require mechanical manipulation of some parts to arrive at some prescribed solution are well known in the prior art. These puzzles include, for example, Rubic's Cube, which requires complex manipulations of nine square panels on each side of the cube through simultaneous rotation of three contiguous panels on four cube sides to achieve a configuration in which each side of the cube is entirely one color. This puzzle and others of related design tend to be very difficult for most people to solve. Consequently, players tend to find them frustrating and give up after only a few futile attempts to solve them.
Other hand-held puzzles include devices that resemble, for example, miniature pin ball machines and require manipulation of one or more balls around various obstacles until the ball reaches an end point. These types of games tend not to be very challenging and consequently players tend to tire of them quickly.
In addition, most puzzles have only one or a small number of solutions with no method to vary the maze or solution. As a result, after a given amount of playing time, one becomes tired of the puzzle.
Therefore a significant need exists for a hand-held puzzle that is sufficiently challenging to hold a player's interest without being discouragingly complex. In addition, a need exists for a puzzle that can be changed to provide a large number of solutions, thereby maintaining a player's interest indefinitely.